The Abduction of Helen

Ovid: Heroides
From the Letter of Helen to Paris

My beauty oppresses me, for as your kind
praises me, the more [my husband] rightly fears.
This delightful glory also condemns me:
sometimes I wish fame had passed me by.
Do not wonder that he has gone and left me
here, he has learned to trust my virtue.
My face gives him cause to fear, my life calms him;
my virtue is his security
while my beauty arouses his deepest fears.
You argue that opportunity
tendered so freely ought not to be wasted;
a simple husband should profit us.
I am torn between desire and proper fear;
I have not decided, I waver.
My lord is gone, your sleep is lonely; beauty
attracts you to me as me to you.
The nights are endless, and we have met to speak;
you - poor me - utter compelling words
and we together live beneath the same roof.
Let me die if all does not conspire
to cause my downfall; but fear still restrains me.
I wish that you could compel me with honour
to do what you have so vilely invited.
You should have dismissed at once the qualms
of my rude heart. It can happen that profit
will come to those who suffer evil;
I might have been forced to accept happiness.
Let us resist this new love; a flame
freshly lit dies quickly if sprinkled with just
a little water. A stranger's love
is not dependable, like him it wanders
and when it seems most sure, it is gone.